The SGA senate met on Tuesday, April 10 at 9 p.m. and it was one several students felt the need to record and video.
Breaking from their typical bi-weekly meeting day of Thursday, SGA Senate was held on a Tuesday night to support senate members attending the 50th Annual UTM Rodeo.
A proposed bill, S.B. 1711 “An Act to Mandate Direct Contact with Senators and Their Constituents” was moved to the end of the docket to get through the installation of five new senators and the impeachment debates and discussions of Attorney General Devin Majors, Multicultural Affairs Committee Head Esmeralda Mejorado, and Athletic Liaison Porter Streater III.
First on this list was to install new senators throughout varying college. A motion was moved and seconded to accept all appointments at one time and then the senators were sworn in and granted permission to vote in the night’s proceedings. The senators sworn in were:
Tristan Turner, College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Cheyenne Deweese, College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Malia Sanders, College of Health, Education, and Behavioral Sciences
Laina Roberson, College of Health, Education, and Behavioral Sciences
Sarah Webb, College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Haley Carpenter, College of Humanities and Fine Arts
The chambers then proceeded to impeachment charges agains Majors, Mejorado and Streater
The charges against Majors and Streater failed, meaning they will not be sent to trial.
The charges against Mejorado were stated by Procedures Committee Chariman D.Q. Jimmerson. He claimed that she was not fulfilling her duties as Multicultural Affairs Committee Head by not having meetings on every week that the senate does not meet, per the SGA Constitution.
It was also stated that one of her committee members had not ever been informed of a meeting for the entirety of the semester.
Mejorado was given time for rebuttal and stated she was doing her job. She said, “If [the senate] does not think I’ve done my job, then yeah, you should impeach me.”
The charges against Mejorado were voted in agreeance with the two-thirds majority rule and she will now face trial to defend her position further.
The last issue to be discussed was S.B. 1711 which would initiate contact between senators and the students in the colleges they represent early on in the semester and would require them to maintain contact regularly with their colleges regarding what is happening in SGA.
An amendment was brought forth by Jade Bleskey, Senator for the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, to make only one senator responsible for the contact to the students in their college. This amendment also stated that the senator responsible could, potentially, be the senator that received the highest votes in elections. This would also put that senator at the top of the list for a Committee Chair position and allow them to make a decision on whether or not they wanted the position.
There was debate over the amendment and several senators took heated issue with the use of the amendment to decide committee chairs, without the knowledge of the electorate realizing this was the case.
The chambers fought about the authority shift from the hands of the Executive Council to a probable popularity contest, without regard to who could best serve in the position.
During the debate and amendment periods, several recesses were called in order to collect thoughts and clarify language.
When the senate came back together to vote on the amendment, it was approved and passed in the first round.
After a full night of debate, outbursts and several speeches, the senators finally came together and settled their differences.
This high-stress meeting was adjourned at 10:48 p.m.
All students are members of the Student Government Association and are invited to attend senate meetings in the legislative chambers, UC Room 111, every other Thursday night. The next and final senate meeting of the semester will be held on April 26.
Pacer Graphic/ Daniel Jones
